How much do Glastonbury headliners get paid as Billie Eilish takes to Pyramid Stage

From Billie Eilish to Paul McCartney, Glastonbury has some huge headliners this year, but they're not getting paid as much as you might think. Here’s how much they actually get for the gig

Glastonbury headliners get paid significantly less than they do for other festivals

Image: AFP via Getty Images)

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Glastonbury performers are taking to the stages today as the highly anticipated festival gets going.

This year’s event will see some huge acts, including Sam Fender, Diana Ross and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.

Billie Eilish is headlining tonight (June 24) and is set to become the youngest ever solo headliner at Glastonbury.

Meanwhile, Paul McCartney is set to break another age record on Saturday, as he becomes the festival’s oldest headliner.

The final headline act is Kendrick Lamar, the American rapper and songwriter rounding off the festival on Sunday night.

It’s one of the biggest gigs of the year and a dream come true for most artists, but they might not be paid as much as you think.

Here’s how the fees for performing at Glastonbury work.

How much do Glastonbury headliners get paid?

Paul McCartney, who is headlining again this year, was paid £200,000 for his performance in 2004

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( Getty Images)

Glastonbury is one of the biggest festivals of the year. It’s renowned internationally and has had some absolutely huge headliners over the years, including David Bowie, Beyoncé and Adele.

With such big names, you’d think that the musicians are being paid a hefty sum for their performances on the Pyramid Stage, but you might be surprised to find that they’re actually paid less than you’d think.

Michael Eavis, the co-founder of Glastonbury, once revealed that Coldplay and Paul McCartney were both paid around £200,000 for past headline sets.

He said at the time: "I paid £200,000 for Paul McCartney and for Coldplay, and although it sounds a lot, they could have charged me far more."

In 2017, Michael’s daughter Emily, who is now a co-organiser of the event, revealed that the festival’s performers are typically paid less than 10% of what they’d usually get for other performances.

In an interview with BBC Radio 6, she explained: "We're not in a situation where we're able to just give people enormous amounts of money.

"So we're really grateful for the bands that we get because they're basically doing it for the love of it."

The exact amount that each headliner gets paid is kept under wraps, but in an interview with Somerset Live, Bestival organiser Rob Da Bank revealed that Glastonbury’s budget is under £500,000 per headliner.

He said: "They cap their budget and even the headliners don't get paid more than 500 grand, I think, which is cheap for some of the headliners and they've had a lot of them.”

Why does Glastonbury pay less than other festivals?

Beyoncé was reportedly paid $4million for Coachella, but would have been paid significantly less for Glastonbury

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( Aced1500 / Splash News)

For other UK festivals, headliners can earn upwards of £1million for their performances and according to Billboard, Beyoncé was paid a jaw-dropping $4million (£3.2million) for her Coachella performance in 2018.

However, it’s highly unlikely that the Single Ladies singer was paid anywhere near this amount for her 2011 Glastonbury appearance.

This is because Glastonbury is a festival that aims to raise money for charity, and so headliners are paid significantly less than usual.

Each year the festival raises funds for charities including Oxfam and Greenpeace, which means that they have a smaller budget, especially during a wet year like this one is expected to be.

Emily explained: "In a wet year it's harder because it costs more, but we give as close to £2m as we can.

"That's why we're not commercial, in that respect. We're not in the same bracket as everyone else when it comes to paying artists massive fees."

But it’s not the money that draws huge performers to Glastonbury, it’s the festival’s reputation and acts can rake in huge amounts of money after performing.

Emily told George Ezra’s podcast: “Because of the TV and because of the exposure that they get, they do go on to do really well afterwards, so they'll sell records afterwards.

"So we're saying 'look, come and do this but even though there's a small fee, we can almost guarantee afterwards you'll make up for it'."

How much do Glastonbury headliners get paid as Billie Eilish takes to Pyramid Stage

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